''Netherlands v Sweden'' ,1958 ICJ 8, (also known as the ''Boll case'') was heard before the
International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice (ICJ; , CIJ), or colloquially the World Court, is the only international court that Adjudication, adjudicates general disputes between nations, and gives advisory opinions on International law, internation ...
in 1958. It remains the only case in which a Convention drafted by the
Hague Conference on Private International Law was the principal subject of interpretation by a court with worldwide jurisdiction.
Facts
The
Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
sued
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
in regards to the
guardianship of a child, Marie Elizabeth Boll. Marie was the daughter of a Dutch seafarer whose Swedish wife had died. Before the mother's death, the child lived in Sweden with her mother but, under the existing rules of nationality during that period, was entitled to only the Dutch nationality of her father. In spite of Marie's residence in Sweden, Dutch authorities assigned her guardianship, according to their own procedures.
Swedish authorities overrode the Dutch decisions and placed the child under a protective public care order, based on the fact that Marie was residing in Sweden with maternal grandparents.
Judgment
The Court analyzed the
Hague Convention of 1902 relating to the settlement of guardianship of minors and found that the concept of guardianship should be narrowly interpreted. As such, the 1902 Convention did not prevent institutions of public law, here the Swedish order, from intervening to take the child into "care" or "protective upbringing." The practical effect of the decision was that it allowed a state to void the guardianship orders of another state with presumptive jurisdiction, by enacting public laws.
Significance
In response to the decision, the
Hague Conference, which had recently created a small Permanent Bureau, responded by drafting a new Convention in the Conference's Ninth Diplomatic Session in 1960, the
Hague Convention of 1961 concerning the powers of authorities and the law applicable in respect of the protection of minors, which included expanded language regarding "measures directed to the protection of
he child'sperson or property," which was specifically intended to apply to both a state's own private law orders, such as guardianship orders, but also to all public care orders.
See also
*
List of International Court of Justice cases
References
{{reflist
External links
Case concerning the Application of the Convention of 1902 governing the Guardianship of Infants (Netherlands v. Sweden), Judgment of November 28th, 1958: I.C.J. Reports 1958, p. 55.Hague Conference on Private International Law
Conflict of laws case law
Family case law
International Court of Justice cases
1958 in case law
1958 in the Netherlands
1958 in Sweden
1958 in international relations
Netherlands–Sweden relations